German Tax Evaders Beware!

Not to be left out of the crackdown on tax evaders, German government officials are planning to pay $3.5 million for a CD of stolen data from a secret informant that contains information about 1,500 Germans who have secret accounts in Switzerland.  The country’s finance minister has warned that those named on the CD will risk punishment and that anyone who has evaded taxes should volunteer their information through a special tax code provision for tax evaders.

Germany’s tax evasion problem is especially troubling because of a high tax rate for top earners and a close proximity to Switzerland.

Aside from an obvious ethical debate, there is a debate about whether stolen information is admissible evidence; however, similar evidence stolen from Liechtenstein in 2008 has been successfully used in German courts to prosecute nearly 200 cases.

See Nicholas Kulish, German Minister to Tax Cheats: Confess Now, NY Times, Feb. 3, 2010. 

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.